Four new flyovers planned in Chennai

CHENNAI: The city corporation will study the possibility of building four new flyovers and five pedestrian subways, mayor Saidai Duraisamy said, while presenting the civic body’s budget for 2013-2014 on Monday. Feasibility studies would be done to check the viability of the projects.

One flyover is planned at the TTK Road-St Marys Road-Chamiers Road junction near Hotel Park Sheraton to reduce congestion. Flyovers have also been proposed at Arcot Road-Kaliamman Koil Street junction near Koyambedu, at Kodambakkam High Road-Thirumalai Pillai Road-Valluvar Kottam High Road junction in Nungambakkam, and at Madhya Kailash junction in Adyar.

Pedestrian subways have been proposed under N S K Salai near Meenakshi Engineering College, and near Vadapalani bus depot, on Kamarajar Salai, at Dr Radhakrishnan Salai junction and on Purusawalkam High Road.

The Alwarpet flyover is likely to be right-angled, beginning on Chamiers Road turning left on to TTK Road and ending at St Mary’s Road junction. The junction connects commuters from RA Puram, Adyar, OMR, Guindy and beyond to Nungambakkam, Chetpet, Anna Nagar and beyond. It is also an alternative route from central Chennai to the airport when Anna Salai is jammed.

The flyover at Madhya Kailash junction was suggested in 2007-08, but had to be dropped because CLRI refused to give up land. The new one is likely to begin at Thiruvi-ka bridge and run to Kotturpuram bridge, over Buckingham Canal. This removes the problem of land acquisition. A flyover will be built from Arcot Road to Kaliamman Koil Street, which connects Koyambedu with Kodambakkam. The fourth at Valluvar Kottam is likely to be three-armed and allow commuters from Dr MGR Salai to drive to Thirumullai Pillai Road directly.

The four new flyovers will be in addition to the 13 existing ones and four more that are coming up. The corporation proposed seven flyovers last year, of which three were shelved due to metro rail construction and inability to find consultants. The other four are on track.

However, transport experts do not believe that flyovers are the solution to traffic congestion. “Creating space for private motor vehicles is a never-ending problem,” says Shreya Gadepalli, regional director of Institute of Transport and Development Policy. “Any flyover will get overwhelmed in a few years,” she said.

Commuters welcome the opportunity to skip a signal. “I pick and drop my children at AMM school. If I don’t have to share road space with commuters going to Alwarpet I can save time,” said Jayashree P, a resident of Greenways Road.